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Covering your light is risky because it makes it a lot harder to see what is front of you. I have mental image of two riders crashing into each other because they have covered their lights and can’t see one another and don’t have both hands on their handlebars – hit a bump and you’re toast. Swiveling lights doesn’t seem much better. I think the amount of energy people spend getting worked up about other peoples’ lights blinking or being too bright far exceeds the energy it takes just to cope with it.

Talking Heads: more songs about buildings and food.

This forum: more griping about brightness and lights.

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Sounds great. Astro Doughnuts near 13th and G has a good selection.

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There was an article on Velonews about laws to protect vulnerable road users – peds., cyclists, etc – to deal with this concern that the current legal penalties are insufficient when a driver is not under the influence or grossly negligent. http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/11/news/road/legally-speaking-with-bob-mionske-vulnerable-user-laws_388889 I presume the WABA advocacy folks are aware of this.

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@bikingmovement 127559 wrote:

A friend and I have spent the last few months prototyping a few products for improving the state of bicycling in the Washington D.C. Metro area. We think we’ve come up with an optimal solution for bicycle storage and could use your input to further refine what we have so far.

In a nutshell, we’re looking to eliminate bike thefts and improve cycling infrastructure in the DMV.

The survey should only take 5 min and will help us immensely! We are happy to share more details about our venture after the survey period has closed.

http://goo.gl/forms/oCki3YxWgG

Anyone try this to see if its legit?

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With the cold weather, frost and ice coming up, we need a ” I Fell on My ___ on the MVT Wooden Bridges” sub-thread. Less of a risk of adverse liability issues as well.

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On the off-hand chance I get a garmin, will there be a downloadable route available?

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Good time to use both your front and read lights in blinking mode, so you stand out and are identifiable as a cyclist (or maybe just speed up – either one should work).

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There is now an on-line petition to support building the velodrome in Wheaton. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/255/485/978/move-it./?taf_id=16867672&cid=fb_na. If this url doesn’t work, go to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/ and search on velodrome.

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@Emm 126260 wrote:

I thought this was an onion article when I saw it last night. I’m surprised the church doesn’t have a deal with a local garage or other parking lot for their congregants. We go to Holy Trinity in Georgetown, and parking there is miserable plus it’s not metro accessible. But you can park for free at a local school and just walk a few blocks to church which makes life easy. Or bike there like we have from work or home a few times .

I’m not a lawyer, but I have a hard time seeing how well this argument would hold up in court–I’m not sure parking illegally really counts as part of your religious liberty. Maybe some of the lawyers here can comment on it’s merit though.

It’s the spaghetti principle of law – throw something against the wall and see if it sticks.

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@dbb 125234 wrote:

REI has a great return policy. You might be able to take it back

REI supposedly gives one year to return items for reasons other than defective merchandise (I.e., didn’t like it, didn’t fit).

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The recall has been to about 15 different bike brands.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/09/news/seventeen-brands-recall-1-5-million-bikes-for-quick-release-issue_386774

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@Terpfan 125065 wrote:

I ought thank the Alexandria PD as my commute times have sped up about 5-7 minutes by taking Washington St. I’m guessing there has been a slight corresponding decline in other people’s car commutes, but, I figure this is what the police wanted or at least that was my takeaway.

Can bikes go in the HOV lane or did you go into one of the other traffic lanes?

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@DrP 124594 wrote:

I am curious. With all the questions and comments on comfort, kids, and others, when did you start riding bicycles and where was that? Perhaps others, not on this forum, are comfortable on these roads based on their prior riding experience. Perhaps some are uncomfortable because, while similar to the roads they grew up riding, they are different roads and thus “scary.” Does that change the approach of education and lane marking? Does it change how we get messages out to drivers? While not all kids learned to ride, many kids did learn to ride bikes as kids and then stopped for some reason. They are now driving. Can we take advantage of that.

So, I started as a kid in a suburb of NYC. Road-wise, definitely not dissimilar from Arlington or Falls Church City or even parts of Alexandria. There were no bike lanes anywhere. Helmets were not the thing (and no, I am not starting a helmet vs not discussion – I like helmets and point out to my mom regularly that when she was a kid, the cars were not going >=35mph next to her). Once I knew how to ride easily (6 yr old, maybe?), I was all over the place riding. Sometimes to school, but usually all over my town and the next town over. There were lots of “neighborhood” streets, but several with cars going 30-40 mph and lanes much narrower than many of the major streets here. The worst of those I typically crossed rather than rode along, but there was definitely a stretch of US1 that I rode – I would liken it to Lee Hwy in Arlington or Route 7 in Falls Church. I still go back to that town regularly. I see more people biking on these roads and kids on many of them. There still aren’t bike lanes, although there are bike route signs. Some I would be more comfortable on than others, just as here.
While I am definitely for more cycling structure, are there places that we should focus more on and others, well, it isn’t worth the potential backlash?

Starting riding in the D.C. burbs about age 6 (quiet streets), was riding in Bethesda up Wisc. Ave by high school. All pre-helmet and pre-bike lane.

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@consularrider 124315 wrote:

Generally on the blink setting the battery life is longer. Also, I will use the blink setting around sunrise and sunset on low traffic MUPs like the 4MRT that go through forested areas when there is plenty of ambient light for me to see by but I need to catch the attention of approaching trail users. My (purely unsubstantiated) impression is that they see a flashing headlight under those circumstances much more often than a steady headlight set on low power.

I agree. During sun glare periods, it helps to do something to stand out as a cyclists because of the number of drivers, runners and other cyclists that can’t see you well or are spacing out.

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It would be nice if WABA or the DC government could give some sort of idea on whether the ban applies to cyclists and pedestrians, especially during periods when the pope is not in the proximity of a closed area.

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